On Wednesday night’s episode of The Nightly Show, Tyson was summoned by host Larry Wilmore to hit back at B.o.B., who earlier in the week got into it with the famed astrophysicist after saying the Earth was flat. (Hi, this is a real story.)

“Listen B.o.B., once and for all. The Earth looks flat because, one, you’re not far enough away, at your size,” Tyson said as the crowd cheered his ding on B.o.B.’s height. “Two, your size isn’t large enough relative to Earth to notice any curvature at all. It’s a fundamental fact of calculus and non-Euclidean geometry, small sections of large curved surfaces will always look flat to little creatures that crawl upon it.”

B.o.B. posted his flat Earth thoughts on Twitter this week, and after he was debunked by Tyson, released a diss track aimed at the scientist. Tyson got his revenge on Wednesday, slamming B.o.B. for using his platform as a famous musician as a way to expound falsehoods to the general public.

“But this whole thing is just a symptom of a larger problem: There’s a growing anti-intellectual strain in this country, and it may be the beginning of the end of our informed democracy,” Tyson said. “Of course, in a free society, you can and should think whatever you want. If you want to think the world is flat, go right ahead. But if you think the world is flat, and you have influence over others — as would successful rappers or even presidential candidates — then being wrong becomes being harmful to the health, the wealth and the security of our citizenry. Discovery and exploration got us out of the caves, and each generation benefits from what previous generations have learned. Isaac Newton, my man, said, ‘If I have seen farther than others, it’s by standing on the shoulders of giants.’ So that’s right B.o.B., when you stand on the shoulders of those who came before, you might just see far enough to realize the Earth isn’t f–ing flat.”

Tyson concluded his takedown with a lesson: “And by the way, this is called gravity,” he said, before literally dropping a mic on the conversation. Watch the whole thing below.

Comedy Central

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